1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for arranging entities, and more particularly to a method for dynamically arranging entities within a two-dimensional workspace in a symmetrical lattice, while maximizing the distance between entities.
2. Description of Related Art
Companies displaying information on the internet or designers for such companies often need a flexible way to display dynamic groupings of information for viewing by a user on a display such as items on sale, accounts, a menu of selections, etc. Conventionally the only extant methods available for arranging this information are traditional structures, such as a list or a collection of rectangular buttons arranged in a grid. These methods often lack visual appeal, thereby detracting from a user""s attention to the information.
Additionally other areas, for example, manufacturing design, packaging design, clothing design, landscape design often utilize two-dimensional designs to plan the distribution of objects.
There are also pre-arranged patterns of other, more visually appealing shapes. However, conventional pre-arranged patterns lack the flexibility of automatically varying the size and quantities of items to fill a workspace.
Visually oriented design programs such as Visio(trademark), AutoCad(trademark) and other similar types of software have functions that allow a user to evenly distribute the spacing of objects. However, such functions only work in vertical and horizontal directions, giving no facility for uniform distribution of objects in other directions.
Many artistic or mathematical-interest computer programs offer repeated patterns of a shape through a method commonly referred to as xe2x80x9ctilingxe2x80x9d. In such programs, only one shape is involved and its form must be such that can be placed immediately adjacent to copies of itself with no intervening space in any direction.
Some mathematicians, such as Kenneth Stephenson of the University of Tennessee, have published papers on circle-packing, addressing the practice of arranging circles tangentially within various geometric shapes. The rules for packing are such that it is not always practical for display applications.
Accordingly, a continuing need exists for methods of uniformly and arranging objects in a two dimensional work space in a symmetrical lattice while maximizing the distance between adjacent entities.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for dynamic symmetric uniform distribution of entities that does not follow a simple orthogonal grid or list arrangement, thereby providing greater visual appeal or optional arrangement of physical entities.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for dynamically, symmetrically, and uniformly distributing entities to facilitate the design of static arrangements, e.g. textiles, publishing, graphic arts, product design, landscape design building materials, as well as applications in which arrangements must be produced dynamically, e.g. computer displays of choices, computer displays of collections of data and to facilitate certain types of object packing for industrial or scientific applications.
To achieve the above objects and others, a method in accordance with the invention is provided which positions any number of entities (N) in rows and columns within a two-dimensional workspace, such that the center of each entity is an equal maximal distance (D) from the center of its closest neighbors, and at least half the same distance (D) from the boundaries of the area given. This distance (D) also represents the maximum diameter of the perimeter that each entity can lie completely within, without crossing another entity""s perimeter or any boundary of the workspace. The method can be utilized to achieve maximum entity perimeter/diameter or, to achieve the largest workspace possible within other known criteria, as described further hereinbelow. In most cases, the results are identical.
The workspace is an area whose edges are at a distance of D/2 from the centers of each of the outermost entities of the arrangement. Given the number of entities to be arranged (N), the dimensions of an enclosing workspace, an orientation preference (A or B), and an indication whether its primary objective is maximum entity size or maximum workspace size, the method determines the position of the center point of each entity, the diameter (D) of each entity""s perimeter, and the dimensions of the workspace.